Crafts and Fabrics Retailer Joann to Close All 800 Stores Across 49 States Amid Financial Struggles

By Zach Lebowitz

Joann, a popular fabrics and crafts retailer operating for 80 years, announced Sunday that the company will begin to close all their remaining stores amid financial turmoil, The New York Times reported.

The company had been struggling financially for a number of years after an increase in crafts-project sales during the start of the pandemic, NPR reported. Neil Saunders, retail analyst, said to NPR the company lost its market share to online businesses and competing brick-and-mortar companies such as Hobby Lobby and Michaels.

The closings will affect nearly 19,000 employees, most of who worked part-time, listed after Joann's second Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing January, according to NBC News.

The company announced earlier this month that it would close 500 of their 800 locations across the country as part of the bankruptcy process, according to The New York Times. 

The New York Times reported that the company’s assets were auctioned off Friday to financial services company the GA Group, who plans to finish the company’s operations and conduct going-out-of-business sales at all stores, pending bankruptcy court approval.

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